Casino chips are used to identify amounts of money or players in casinos and are mainly divided into value chips with a nominal value and non-value chips without a nominal value.
Value chips are chips which can be cashed in, which have surfaces on which the nominal value and the casino logo are printed, and can always be cashed in at casinos. Although there are differences between them, the casino chips used by most casinos correspond to one thousand Won, five thousand Won, ten thousand Won, one hundred thousand Won, one million Won, five million Won, and ten million Won in terms of the monetary value.
Non value chips are chips which cannot be cashed in, and are generally distinguishable by several colors, for example, seven colors, to identify players in games such as Roulette or Tai-Sai.
Since casino chips are articles which substitute for a considerable sum of money, efforts are required to be made to prevent the casino chips from being transferred to the outside and their forgery, falsification, etc. from occurring. As methods for preventing these, there are methods using a hologram, UV ink, watermarks, magnetic strips, barcodes, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), etc., and among these methods, a method using RFID is advantageous in that the lifespan is semipermanent, forgery and falsification are impossible, and efficient management is performed, compared to methods using magnetic strips or barcodes.
Therefore, methods using RFID have recently started to be frequently used. RFID technology is a technology that identifies information from a long distance away using radio waves. For this, RFID tags and an RFID reader are required. Each tag is composed of an antennae and an IC, wherein information is recorded in the IC and is transmitted to the reader through the antennae. This information is used to identify the object to which the tag is attached.
When RFID technology is applied to casino chips using a frequency of 13.56 MHz which is the most generally used frequency when RFID technology is utilized, transmittance is low. The number of casino chips which a human being can hold in one hand is about 20, but there is a problem because when 20 chips are stacked in a pile, it is difficult for a reader located below a table to identify all 20 casino chips.
Further, when RFID technology using a frequency of 13.56 MHz is applied to casino chips, the range of identification is typically 10 cm or less. When power is increased to further increase the range of identification, there is a problem in that interference with other RFID tags located within a distance of 40 cm occurs, thus making it difficult to accurately identify information stored in the casino chips.
Furthermore, there is a problem in that the ICs or antennae of RFID tags are damaged by high temperature and pressure during the process of manufacturing casino chips.